TN: 2010 Yves Cuilleron St Joseph L'Amarybelle

This is a St Joe from Yves Cuillereon that is from granitic soil. It is a proprietary cuvee if I understand.
100% syrah.

This is magic.

2010 Yves Cuilleron St Joseph L’Amarybelle

The nose is so wonderful. That really wonderful nose of briery, peppery, meaty syrah. So much detail. Really wonderful. As good as a great many Hermitages.
One of the better young Northern Rhone noses I have experienced in quite a long time.

The palate is a wonderful mix of dark meaty fruit. Focused with structure and some element of spice. The tannins are buffered by tremendous fruit.
The finish is the only place you can pick up the aging capacity of this beauty. The finish is infinitely long for St Joseph.
Many know my love for Jean Gonon’s wines. (and his brother).
This is the real deal here. One of the best St Josephs I have tasted.

Amazing. (and affordable folks!)

Thanks Don, Cuilleron did some good stuff in 2010.

Cheers, Howard

Sounds like a wine that I would love. I certainly love the 2010 vintage in Northern Rhone. Did you find this in Atlanta, Don?

I bought a few bottles of this cuvee back in the mid-90s, and it was an oaky mess. No signs of that in your note though.

Yes. At pH wine.

I had the 2009 Yves Cuilleron “l’Amarybelle” [St Joseph] rouge over the last two nights. Purchased on release, and decanted half the bottle into a split for the second night. 13% abv, and according the importer, this gets all the labor intensive treatment: hand harvesting, green thinning, fruit dropping etc. It’s from a hillside terrace on stony soil, and this cuvee is no longer offered, its grapes having been folded into the Cavanos bottling now. Only a little new oak is used during elevage, and at age ten plus, I don’t detect any on the nose/palate. It leads off with a peppery and smoky nose, more so on day 2. The palate is tight on the first day but on the second day becomes expansive with red berry fruit. The tannins are mostly gone but there is a strong acidic line here. I had it mostly without food while cooking dinner each night. The fruit is a touch on the wan side, but maybe this would have been a better younger. I like this but would not buy it again; I haven’t had many of Cuilleron’s extensive lineup but I’ve liked his whites better. The wine - to me - is balanced in how it might appeal to modernists or traditionalists.

I’d slot it into a B grade.

I have some ideas on most of the listed labor intensive treatment, but what is “fruit dropping”?

Maybe I should have said green harvesting or something. It’s when the vineyard workers cut off some bunches early before ripening, so the vine can focus on ripening a smaller amount of grapes. Add the grapes to the pig slop!

I might actually have to do this with our grapefruit tree at home. We’re getting lots of fruit, mostly unripe though!

Oh, OK.

It sounded funny, at first. Something like intentionally throwing down bunches of grapes on the floor to, hopefully, speed up ripening.